Hardin-Simmons professor appreciative of blessed life, living in U.S.

Nellie Doneva/Reporter-News
Michael Whitehorn is an English and leadership professor, and a counselor, at Hardin-Simmons University.

Abilene Reporter-News

Nellie Doneva/Reporter-News
Michael Whitehorn is an English and leadership professor at Hardin-Simmons University as well as a counselor. He is currently reading a book called “Backpack Literature.”

Abilene Reporter-News

Position: English and leadership professor, counselor

Age: 70

Education: Graduated from Booker High School, Booker, 1961; earned bachelor’s degree of science in international affairs, U.S. Air Force Academy, 1965; earned master’s in English, University of Denver, 1972; earned doctorate in English, University of Denver, 1977; master’s in counseling, Alabama State University, 1990

Work experience: Served in intelligence and counterintelligence with U.S. military, 1965-72; detachment commander, Vietnam, 1967-68; taught English at Air Force Academy, 1972-81; director of the Academic Instructor School, Air University, Air Force, 1981-86; vice-commandant of the Educational Development Center, 1984-86; vice president for student development and English and leadership professor, 1992 to 2012; founding director of HSU Institute for Leadership, 1994 to 2004; English and leadership professor, counselor, January 2013 to present

After holding top positions at the Air Force Academy, Alabama State University and Hardin-Simmons University, professor Michael Whitehorn said he still enjoys teaching.

After working as HSU’s senior vice president for student development from 1992 to 2012, the 70-year-old Texas native assumed a new role in December: Teaching English and leadership half the time and be a counselor the other half.

“I love to teach the students and even teach a Sunday school class,” said Whitehorn, who attends Pioneer Drive Baptist Church. “As long as I’m effective and feel comfortable in the classroom I feel like I want to keep teaching. ... I always liked English. I love the fact that people can experience an incredible amount of life through reading good books. I like so many (authors), but particularly like Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and a number of others.”

Whitehorn said Hardin-Simmons’ “wonderful” leadership, “superb” faculty, “outstanding” staff and the “greatest” students make it easy to work at the Abilene school.

“I also really like working at a liberal arts institution,” said Whitehorn, who was an All-American on the Air Force Academy’s pistol team while studying for his bachelor’s degree. “We don’t prepare students for one career, we prepare students for many careers and for life. I think we forget that sometimes.”

As the country celebrates its 237th birthday Thursday, Whitehorn said he wants Americans to always be protective of their personal freedoms. Whitehorn, who won four medals during his 21 years of service in the Air Force, said today’s patriotism is vastly different from how U.S. service members were treated during the Vietnam War.

Whitehorn was a Vietnam detachment commander from October 1967 to October 1968, and later participated in high-level briefings that included the White House.

“The difference is pretty simple: Korea and Vietnam were foreign wars; very few (American) people were touched by those,” said Whitehorn, who retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. “But with 9/11, we became personally threatened and as a result we have to be careful as protecting personal freedoms as we do the nation. I feel it’s a good thing we’re more patriotic, but we’re a fickle society because we’re so blessed and as soon as we feel less threatened it’s likely that the surge of patriotism will abate.”

As he looks back on his teaching and military careers, as well as his life, Whitehorn said he can’t help but feel “tremendously blessed.”

“I’ve been married 33 years to a wonderful wife and we’re blessed with these wonderful kids and grandchildren,” Whitehorn said. “I’ve been blessed with wonderful opportunities and now I’m doing what I love the most, which is teaching. We have great friends and a wonderful church. (My wife’s) mother and my dad are still living. We feel very blessed. Life has been very good to us. God has treated us with a lot of kindness.”

HSU President Lanny Hall, who hired Whitehorn, described him as a “servant leader” who approaches others with “gentlemanly respect, Christian love and humility.”

“All the students who are blessed to have had him as a professor know that they have been positively influenced by a unique and gifted individual,” Hall said. “A highly-decorated Vietnam War veteran, he has experienced the ugliness of war and appreciates the beauty of a poem. In making Mike Whitehorn, the Lord made a person of great intellect who is thankful for every blessing of his life.”